When Michael Knapp brings his lover Dan Biggs home to meet his parents, he doesn't expect things to go smoothly. His mother's been trying to marry him off for years, and sometimes he isn't even sure his father knows he exists. He has always felt like the shadow son, competing with his terminally stupid older brother and smart-mouthed little sister for his parents' attention. Coming out to them over dinner seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally get noticed.<br><br>But an unexpected phone call interrupts his announcement -- Aunt Evie, the family matriarch, is dead. With Dan in tow, Michael follows his family to Sugar Creek, where he spent his summers growing up, to prepare for the funeral.<br><br>Amid an overabundance of memories and relatives, Michael's world begins to slip. His dysfunctional family, Evie's death, and an old friend's confession all threaten to smother him. Worse, in his grief and confusion he seems determined to inadvertently push everyone away, including his lover. Can he and Dan move beyond his family and his past to a new life together, before Michael's insecurities tear them apart?

It's All Relative

Ray glares at me as if that’smy fault, too. “What?” I ask, standing. “I didn’t say it. How much milk is left?”


“You didn’t haveto say it,” Ray mutters, and before I can say anything else, he tips his head back and guzzles down what’s left in the carton.


Milk courses down the corners of his mouth like cum, trickles down his chin, down his throat. He’s watching me stare at him, and I swear the corners of his lips are pulled into a faint smile, he’senjoyingthis. “There better be another carton in there,” I tell him, pissed. “Hell, Ray, I was being nice.”


“All gone,” he says, wiping his arm across his mouth. He isgrinning, the fucker.


A dozen scenes flit through my mind, me pinning him to the fridge, cramming that damn carton down his throat…my hands curl into fists just picturing the pain I could cause him. “That was damn rude,” I growl.


Chapter 95